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Go Nation: Chinese Masculinities and the Game of Weiqi in China . By Marc L. Moskowitz . Berkeley : University of California Press , 2013. xxii, 184 pp. $70.00 (cloth); $29.95 (paper, ebook).
Book Reviews--China
This book is a study of the game of Weiqi, better known to Americans as Go, in China. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2010 and 2011, the author explores the cultural significance and social meanings of the game among three groups of players: children (and their parents), university students, and older male park-goers. As the book's subtitle suggests, however, it is also a study of Chinese masculinities, which the author argues are critically reflected in the game. The book provides a lucid introduction of Chinese Weiqi for readers who have no previous knowledge about it and does an admirable job of situating the game within the historical and contemporary cultural context of China.
In the introduction, the author attributes Weiqi's popularity in contemporary China to its origins among the elite scholars of ancient China--an alternative to Western cultural markers, such as learning English and playing the piano. The author argues that Weiqi remains a male-dominated field "that incorporates historical images of...